Will my account get flagged if 3 books go missing at one time? I am still kinda new here, but all the books I have mailed have gone out fast and all have arrived, so I would hope that 3 missing at once won't make it look like I am trying to cheat people out of books or something.

I have ordered a total of 18 books and sent out 7 books, all the ones I sent out were completed successfully.

Of the 18 books I have ordered, I have gotten 12 +1 (a member accidently sent the wrong book,) 1 is waiting to be mailed, 2 are on the way as of just 2 or 3 days ago, but the other 3 I ordered a month ago and have not seen. Now its possible 2 of the 3 are coming from the same person, I can't remember but they were ordered the same day from the same state. 1 of the 3 books was being tracked through the system here so I could view it on the map. It stalled out about 100 or so miles from here for almost 2 weeks, then suddenly it was back at its start point yesterday. I think somehow it returned to sender, not sure why though. My concern is that the system will mark these as lost on Monday and since there is no mail until Monday it seems they will be marked as lost. 3 in one day. Will that look bad on my account? Did I do something wrong? As I said before, I am almost sure 2 are coming from the same person, and the third I know WAS sent but somehow ended up back at square one and even if he/she sends it again right away it won't arrive until after the system declares it lost. Is there something I should do or just wait until they are declared lost? If I do recieve them after they are declared lost and mark them recieved will the sender still get their credit? I know the person who used PBS tracking already got their credit, but the other person (or persons) did not use tracking.

The map and the little truck are a guess. They do not mean much. By you mentioning them, the book must have DC. What matters is the scans that are done. Once the book has been scanned, the sender gets credited. If the book goes lost, you will also get your credit back.

You can mark books received after they have gone lost by going to your transaction archive under "My Account".

Do not worry about it. The computer system "flags" accounts that have a high number of lost books. That means an actual person with experience would look at your account and possibly PM you with questions. PBS can see your account and the records of when you logged in. The humans look for patterns of bad behavior. Sounds like you are paying attention. Don't worry.

When the books get declared lost, the credits will show up in your account. Don't use them. When the books do arrive, you will need them.

Go to your My Account page and click on the En Route to Me tab. On each of the transactions, you will see a PM button and a Details button.

Click the PM buttons and make a note of the senders' names and see if any are the same. This way you'll know for sure whether you're waiting for 2 packages or 3. While you're looking at the senders names, you can click on them and you'll either see their profiles or bookshelves or an account closed message. If you see that someone who sent you a book that's about to go lost now has their account closed, it's reasonable to suspect that the book was never mailed.

After you've explored the PM buttons, click on the Details buttons for any transactions that have a green check. This will show you the actual USPS scan records for that transaction. If a book has at least one scan after "Electronic Shipping Info Received", then you know for sure that the sender mailed it. You don't have to be concerned about it unless you see "Delivered" or "Notice Left" scans though. Remember that everything you see on your screen in your account can also be seen by the website admins, so if the scans show a book made it half-way to you and then was missent by the Post Office, they will know this was not your fault.

I have one book now that's on it's way from CA to IL, but the only scan record is in El Paso, TX; so USPS can definitely do some strange things that cause delays in delivery.

Emily, you said that if a book goes lost and I get my credit back not to use that credit becuase I will need it if the book shows up. How long do I sit on the credit before I just move on and reorder the book?

What did the scans say? It's possible that the person sending the book didn't actually send it. When they printed postage through PBS, the post office was notified that the postage was printed. That will be the first scan and will say something about "Electronic Shipping Info Received". After that the next scan should be a scan from the post office where the book was dropped off.

I have had several books almost go missing. They showed little more than the "shipping info received" scan. When I PM'ed them to ask if the book might have been accidentally dropped on the floor of their car and not actually mailed, both of the books started moving in the next day or two.

I would PM the shippers and ask in a polite way if they might have forgotten to actually mail the book. If you are polite about it, the sender should not be bothered by your PM. With my two, one replied, really mortified to say that no, she had not actually mailed the book. She had given it to a friend to drop off at the PO and the friend forgot to do it. The other simply mailed the book the next day.

I would not PM the person like that. I word a PM stating that I noticed that the book is about to go lost, that I have not received it, and that I know how to mark a book received after it goes lost. That way it does not sound nagging. PBS also sents a PM about the book to the sender.

PBS recommends waiting two weeks. (I did once have a book arrive 4 months late. And it was mailed on time.) I look to see where the book is coming from and if the weather is a factor. Also if the books are coming from overseas such as AK, HI, PR, GU, or APOs. Media rate from there goes by very slow boat.

The hold sounds like a vacation hold. PBS also has a hold notice, but it does not mention the hold ending. It just says either on hold or suspended. Look to see if they are in one of the areas with flooding last month. Hold is really great when your house does not have electricity due to downed trees. I've gone to the library to put up a hold on my account due to downed wires.

OK, the person with the single book (that looked like it was traveling) just Pmed me to explain that she thought her hubby mailed it, turned out he misplaced it and forgot. Book is found, on its way tomorrow.

The person with 2 books is mailing from South Carolina and the lost date on those is actually the END of the week, not Monday (I thought all 3 were the same, only the first one was tomorrow.) The account is on hold so I can't send an email I don't think. I guess I have to just keep waiting. I'm not sure if South Carolina has had any crazy storms lately...I admit I have been ignoring the news a bit.

So, you now know that only one package containing two books is potentially lost. That's good news! One incoming lost package is not going to flag your account, and you never know, it still might arrive by the end of the week.